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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Lehigh96, post: 422460, member: 15309&quot;]I began collecting coins as a kid.&nbsp; While the other kids were spending their money on baseball cards and the like, I would spend mine on circulated Mercury Dimes and Buffalo Nickels.&nbsp; When I became a teenager and discovered girls, I forgot all about coins.</p><p><br /></p><p>After I graduated from college, I found myself unhappily married and very bored with my life in general.&nbsp; I decided to rekindle my interest in US coins.&nbsp; The first graded coin I purchased was a 1930-D NGC MS66 Standing Liberty Quarter for almost $1,000 in 1998.&nbsp; My wife was not happy with the purchase to say the least.&nbsp; My response was basically, &quot;you can spend a $1,000, but you can&#039;t spend this.&quot;&nbsp; Needless to say, that was the beginning of the end of my marriage.</p><p><br /></p><p>Once single again, I found my budget for coins increased dramatically.&nbsp; I then turned back to my childhood favorite, the Mercury Dime.&nbsp; I collected the moderns (1934-1945) in MS67FB and almost completed the short set when I found the coin that would change my collecting interests forever.&nbsp; In 1998 my father passed away suddenly.&nbsp; When I saw this coin for the first time in 2001 in a Heritage auction, I just had to have it.&nbsp; You see, Ira Allen is the spitting image of my late father.&nbsp; This is the first rainbow toned coin I ever purchased.</p><p><br /></p><p><img src="http://i117.photobucket.com/albums/o59/ACPitBoss/VermontObverseHolder1.jpg" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" /></p><p><img src="http://i117.photobucket.com/albums/o59/ACPitBoss/VermontReverseHolder.jpg" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" /></p><p><br /></p><p>I was hooked on rainbow toned coins and would forever become a toning freak.&nbsp; I started to assemble a rainbow toned early commem set but quickly realized that my budget would not support such a venture.&nbsp; From there, I quickly turned to Morgan Dollars.&nbsp; My first two Morgans were purcahsed at the same time.&nbsp; I still own both and will never sell them unless I am forced to by financial crisis.</p><p><br /></p><p><img src="http://i117.photobucket.com/albums/o59/ACPitBoss/Morgan%20Dollars/FirstRainbowTonedMorgans.jpg" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" /></p><p><br /></p><p>From 2001 until 2006, my collecting was a very unfocused frenzy of every rainbow toned coin I could find regardless of denomination or issue.&nbsp; In late 2006, I discovered the NGC Registry.&nbsp; The registry quickly helped me focus my collecting habits and set goals for myself.&nbsp; I currently have two complete signature sets, two top 10 20th Century type sets (rainbow toned), a top 20 rainbow toned Jefferson War Nickel set, and a top 30 rainbow toned Jefferson Nickel date set.&nbsp; I have displayed the nickels on this forum and the other collections are going to be topics of my future threads.</p><p><br /></p><p>BTW, this is a fun post and I hope I didn&#039;t bore you guys with my very long&nbsp; evolution.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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